Dive into the video series Stay Curious, which offers down-to-earth explanations of complex science, as well as portraits and talks with the Carlsberg Foundation's top researchers.
STAY CURIOUS: Sequencing the barley genome has been successfully accomplished for the first time ever. It provides an opportunity to understand genetics, biochemistry and the plant physiology behind. New technology makes it possible to develop barley and other crops that can endure a changing climate.
STAY CURIOUS: We live in strange times. Since machines have entered our social lives, human science has never been more important. Robots can predict us, they take care of us, and we are fascinated by them. Social robots are not only tools – they awaken our feelings.
STAY CURIOUS: Medical anthropology examines how the human body relates to bigger societal issues, as well as ethical and existential reflections. A prematurely born infant in an incubator demands highly trained professional caregivers and intense care to live. The child is not a living person without society and the culture around it. Where are the borders between human, animal, life, and death?
STAY CURIOUS: The spread of international courts is increasing, and they become ever more productive. Not only do states file lawsuits against each other, but also individuals sue their own states. International courts play a gradually bigger role as semi-constitutional courts, monitoring if UN member-countries break international conventions.
STAY CURIOUS: Peace can only be achieved when states are in dialogue about solving problems. The digital revolution challenges and changes the way in which diplomacy works. State leaders use their smartphones and social media during negotiations. Technology has brought us closer, but it has also created a new balance between confidentiality and transparency.
STAY CURIOUS: Palmyra has always been fascinating to archeologists. The location of the city made it a pivotal point to caravans between the East and the West along the Silk Road. Denmark has one of the world’s largest collections of funerary portraits from Palmyra at the New Carlsberg Glyptotek, making it possible to study society and culture of the centre of the Syrian desert.
STAY CURIOUS: Eco-systems are enormous, and, at the same time, very complex. The ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has a tremendous impact on our climate. Plankton transports carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean, but the composition of plankton in the oceans is changing as a consequence of global warming
STAY CURIOUS: Galaxies have not always existed. Without them, planets and humans would not even exist. So, how did they emerge? The new, current generation of telescopes make it possible to understand the formation of the earliest galaxies.
STAY CURIOUS: What is the truth, what is health, hunger, insecurity, and what do they reveal about us, human beings, and our relations?
STAY CURIOUS: In the future, artificial intelligence will play an increasingly larger role in our lives. We have to maintain balance, so we will not become any less human. So, what do we do, once the efficiency of computer algorithms surpasses the human being? We are faced with a pivotal question of what type of society we want to live in.
STAY CURIOUS: Matter and antimatter cannot coexist. They would annihilate each other. We are only able to see five percent of what the Universe is made of. The rest is dark energy and dark matter. Where did the antimatter go?
STAY CURIOUS: Rewilding is about lessening human interference with the ecosystems of nature and restoring natural processes. For this reason, research is being done on how to reinstate animal populations to restore their function in the food chain, hence, increasing the biodiversity.